You are here

GIS Data

Ulster County GIS layers can be found below. These layers are available for download at no cost as zipped ESRI shapefiles. Also, we have provided links to 3rd party GIS data. This is not a comprehensive list, just the most frequently used 3rd party data.

Custom data and imagery requests are fulfilled by Ulster County GIS. Your data request will be reviewed carefully, and a custom data set will be defined to best meet your needs. Several data formats and delivery options are available. Minimum cost is $154.80. If you require custom datasets please contact us at 845-334-5300 or at gis[at]co.ulster.ny[dot]us.

PLEASE NOTE that you will need geographic information system (GIS) or mapping software to view or use these datasets.

Ulster County Datasets

Ulster County Tax Parcels

Ulster County digitized tax parcel boundaries with a selected set of information from the assessors' RPS database. Maintained by Ulster County Real Property Tax Service Agency. Data is suitable for tax mapping and general mapping purposes. (Last Updated 9/2018, 43MB)

Ulster County 2ft Contours

This data set contains topographic contour lines of Ulster County, NY, for cartographic display and relief analysis. Produced from the 2014 LiDAR dataset and 2015 topographic 1m Digital Elevation Model. Contour intervals of 2 feet were produced in NAD_1983_2011_UTM_Zone_18N Projected Coordinate System. Due to the size of the dataset, it has been broken into small shapefile tiles available for download at http://ulstercountyny.gov/maps/contours/. These files can be used in any GIS application and imported into AutoCAD. If you wish to obtain a complete set of this contour data it is available in an ESRI v9.3.1 geodatabase, compressed to (~6GB). Users will be required to provide a hard drive for transfer. (Last Updated 2016)

Ulster County Legislative Districts

Ulster County Zoning

This dataset includes a county-wide archive from 2004, in which all current town zoning maps were digitized. This dataset also includes more recent updates for the City of Kingston, Village of New Paltz, Town of Rochester, Town of Wawarsing, Town of Woodstock and Town of Marbletown. (Last Updated 2017, 7MB)

Ulster County Habitat Cores

This dataset was developed by the Green Infrastructure Center as part of 2014 case study which describes how a green infrastructure network is created by selecting the highest-value habitats. This download includes the Habitat Cores as a shapefile and as a raster image. It also includes Chapter 5 of the NY Practitioners Guide as well as the notes file for creating the Ulster Model (Last Updated 2018, 77MB)

Land Cover

University of Vermont Spatial Analysis Laboratory

This dataset was developed to support land-cover mapping and modeling initiatives in the Delaware River Basin. At the time of its publication, it represented the most accurate and detailed land cover map for the Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania portion of the Delaware River Basin.

Digital Elevation Models (DEMs)

U.S. Geological Survey

The purpose of this LiDAR data was to produce high accuracy 3D elevation products, including tiled LiDAR in LAS 1.2 format, 3D breaklines, and 1 meter cell size hydro flattened Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). All products follow and comply with USGS Program Lidar Base Specification Version 1.0. The DEMs were made from multiple LIDAR collection projects. The DEM files can be downloaded from the NYS Orthoimagery Application below..

NYS Zip Codes

3rd Party - Water Resources

National Hydrography Dataset (NHD)

United States Geological Survey (USGS)

The National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) is the surface water component of The National Map. It contains features such as lakes, ponds, streams, rivers, canals, dams and streamgages. NHD contains a flow network that allows for tracing water downstream or upstream. It also uses an addressing system based on reach codes and linear referencing to link specific information about the water such as water discharge rates, water quality, and fish population. Using basic NHD features like flow network, linked information, and other characteristics, it is possible to study cause and effect relationships, such as how a source of poor water quality upstream might affect a fish population downstream.

National Flood Hazard Layer

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL) dataset is a compilation of effective Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) databases (a collection of the digital data that are used in GIS systems for creating new Flood Insurance Rate Maps) and Letters of Map Change (Letters of Map Amendment and Letters of Map Revision only) that create a seamless GIS data layer for United States and its territories. The NFHL is updated as new study or LOMC data becomes effective. Note: Currently, not all areas have modernized FIRM database data available. As a result, users may need to refer to the effective Flood Insurance Rate Map for effective flood hazard information. County and community-based NFHL extracts are updated as new data is received, however State extracts are updated only once every two weeks if new data is received during the two week window.

Freshwater Wetlands

NYS Department of Environmental Conservation

These data are a set of ARC/INFO coverages composed of polygonal and linear features. Coverages are based on official New York State Freshwater Wetlands Maps as described in Article 24-0301 of the Environmental Conservation Law. Coverages are not, however, a legal substitute for the official maps.

National Wetlands Inventory

US Fish & Wildlife Service

This data set represents the extent, approximate location and type of wetlands and deepwater habitats in the conterminous United States. These data delineate the areal extent of wetlands and surface waters as defined by Cowardin et al. (1979).

Tidal Wetlands

Aquifers

NYS Department of Environmental Conservation

These aquifers were digitized using a set of five 1:250,000 scale maps of unconsolidated New York State aquifers, excluding Long Island, originally created by the USGS in partnership with the NYSDEC in the mid 1980s.

Surficial Geology

Soils

USDA

Web Soil Survey (WSS) provides soil data and information produced by the National Cooperative Soil Survey. It is operated by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and provides access to the largest natural resource information system in the world.

Agricultural Districts (Ag and Markets)

NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets

These GIS files represent geographic boundaries for lands that are under the protection of NYS Agricultural District Law, administered by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets. The boundaries are derived from New York State Agricultural District, 1:24,000-scale, maps produced at county agencies. The district boundaries correspond to tax parcel data.

School Districts

3rd Party - Environmental Data

Biologically Important Areas

NYS DEC Natural Heritage Program

This dataset indicates areas of biological and ecological importance to the health of the Hudson River estuary. Only areas not currently under public or private conservation management were included. Areas were included if they contain vulnerable, exemplary, and highly diverse clusters of species and habitats. Special consideration was given if the habitat and species are of global, state, and/or regional importance.

Ecological Zones

Submerged Aquatic Vegetation

NYS Department of Environmental Conservation

Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) is an important habitat and site of primary production in many aquatic ecosystems but there was no baseline information on SAV extent or distribution in the tidal freshwater Hudson River. In 1994, a collaboration was initiated between the Institute of Ecosystem Studies (IES), the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve/NYSDEC and the Cornell Laboratory for Environmental Applications of Remote Sensing (CLEARS, now the Cornell Institute for Resource Information Systems (IRIS) http://www.css.cornell.edu/iris/index.htm. These groups provided diverse expertise to enable the first broad delimitation of SAV in the Hudson.

Significant Coastal Wildlife

NYS Department of State (DOS)

Statutory boundary describing significant coastal fish and wildlife habitats identified and recommended by Environmental Conservation and designated by Department of State. This data set is under development. Long Island and New York City areas are completed in draft form and require re-filing with local municipalities to replace paper map versions